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Paget residents voice dissatisfaction with ferry cuts

Paget residents voiced their anger at cuts to the ferry service at a recent parish council meeting.Council member William Pitman called for the group to “make note to Marine and Ports of our dissatisfaction” with the loss of commuter and weekend services to the Pink Route.About 30 residents met for the council’s annual general meeting at Gilbert Institute primary school hall this week. Present were former Progressive Labour Party MP Ottiwell Simmons, and Opposition MPs Grant Gibbons and Patricia Gordon Pamplin.Council secretary Anne Hyde said the location of Paget Post Office continued to be a concern.Members would prefer to see it removed from its tiny plot on Middle Road to an area with better parking facilities.“You take your life in your hands when you back out into the busy highway there,” she said.Ms Gordon Pamplin said there were frequent complaints about the lack of space.“It’s being brought up constantly. It’s one thing to make noise in the House of Assembly, but it’s important to get action. Paget Parish seems to be like a forgotten stepchild with regards to some amenities.”Mr Simmons raised the lack of a sidewalk on the west side of Paget Primary School as another problem.Sergeant Scott Devine, Inspector Jerome Laws and Pc Krishna Singh discussed crime concerns with the group.Insp Laws shared the parish’s most recent crime statistics: 22 residential burglaries have been reported this year compared with 42 in all of 2010. There were 13 commercial burglaries last year; there have been five so far this year.The parish has so far seen no serious assaults. Seven were reported for 2010.Three robberies have been reported so far this year, against seven for 2010.Two categories dropped significantly: 11 vehicles have been stolen this year, versus 75 last year.There have also been only two cases of criminal damage in the parish, against 24 last year. Sgt Devine credited this to the large number of neighbourhood watch groups in Paget.“I don’t know if we’ll go back to the good old days where you could leave your door unlocked,” he said. “But the more community action we can get and the more partnership the police can have with the community, the better, and Paget is fortunate to have quite a few active and well-established neighbourhood watch groups.”Useful web link: www.pagetcouncil.com.